Personal lubricant have been sold for decades for the purposes of treating vaginal dryness, for promoting ease of engaging in intimate physical relations and for lubricating diagnostic devices for insertion into body orifices. However, for the last quarter century personal lubricants have achieved an entirely new role in enhancing and making more pleasurable sexual experiences. Personal lubricants have become perceived as a great means to help set the mood for intimate experiences and enhance intimacy. Current personal lubricants may be used by either or both the partners to achieve this goal.
New and more recent additions to this product line are safe, non-irritating warming products that generate warmth when they come into contact with moisture. Examples of such warming personal lubricants are set forth in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,005,408 as well as copending patent applications U.S. Ser. Nos. 10/390,511, 10/389,871, 10/696,939, 10/697,353, 10/697,838, 10/847,082 and 10/847,083, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
As intimacy enhancement gains increased focus, substantial number of lubricant products are appearing on the market that work by increasing sensitivity in both males and females by imparting tingling, cooling, numbing or additional unique sensation.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,641,825 B2 of Scholz et al. entitled “Skin Cleansing Gel Having a Heating Effect” describes compositions containing at least 5% by weight of dispersed water-soluble salts with a negative enthalpy of solution, which will release heat upon mixing with water. The compositions also contain anionic, zwiterionic and nonionic surfactants. Such compositions, however, are unsuitable for personal lubricant use as they would be irritating to the delicate mucous membranes of the body.
Japanese Patent Application Number 2-311408, of Akiyama et al., entitled “Gelatinous Compositions for the Skin” sets forth compositions that may contain 0-20% water; solvents such as lower alcohols such as ethanol, isopropanol, propyl alcohol, or organic ethers such as ethyl carbitol, ethyl cellulosolve, chloroform, isopropyl myristate and isopropyl palmitate; and a polyhydric alcohol such as propylene glycol, glycerin, diglycerin and dipropylene glycol. These compositions warm by interacting with water but are unsuitable as personal lubricants because of their irritation potential.
Spanish Patent Number ES2, 074,030 by Manuel Roig Carreras et al., entitled “Self-heating Vehicle Compositions That Can Be Used in Topical Treatments” discusses liquid or semisolid compositions that generate heat by means of an in situ mixing of similar amounts of an aqueous portion (W) consisting mainly of water or an aqueous gel and an organic portion (O) consisting mainly of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), dimethylene glycol or polyethylene glycol. Carreras et al. describes the compositions as being contained in two isolated compartments with adjacent openings that permit simultaneous exit of two parts of self-heating compositions. The compositions of this invention may not be suitable for use as personal lubricants because the DMSO is not suitable for human use and the temperature of the compositions when combined may be too elevated to be safe and comfortable in personal lubricant applications.
The novel compositions and methods of this invention are intended to provide novel sensations to the skin of at least two individuals without being unduly irritating and which interact to provide novel or more intense sensations than each would experience absent the exposure, combination and interaction of the initially-applied compositions to each.